he rest. Importunate persons must take their
chance of being well served. Come--here are our brethren; we will all go
together.'

'The farther together the better for the boy's sake,' grumbled Peter,
loud enough for Philammon--perhaps for the old priest--to overhear him.

So Philammon went out with them, and as he went questioned his
companions meekly enough as to who Raphael was.

'A friend of Hypatia!'--that name, too, haunted him; and he began, as
stealthily and indirectly as he could, to obtain information about her.
There was no need for his caution; for the very mention of her name
roused the whole party into a fury of execration.

'May God confound her, siren, enchantress, dealer in spells and
sorceress! She is the strange woman of whom Solomon prophesied.'

'It is my opinion,' said another, 'that she is the forerunner of
Antichrist.'

'Perhaps the virgin of whom it is prophesied that he will be born,'
suggested another.

'Not that, I'll warrant her,' said Peter, with a savage sneer.

'And is Raphael Aben-Ezra her pupil in philosophy?' asked Philammon.

'Her pupil in whatsoever she can find where-with to delude men's souls,'
said the old priest.

'The reality of philosophy has died long ago, but the great ones find it
still worth their while to worship its shadow.'

'Some of them worship more than a shadow, when they haunt her house,'
said Peter. 'Do you think Orestes goes thither only for philosophy?'

'We must not judge harsh judgments,' said the old priest; 'Synesius of
Cyrene is a holy man, and yet he loves Hypatia well.'

'He a holy man?--and keeps a wife! One who had the insolence to tell the
blessed Theophilus himself that he would not be made bishop unless he
were allowed to remain with her; and despised the gift of the Holy Ghost
in comparison of the carnal joys of wedlock, not knowing the Scriptures,
which saith that those who are in the flesh cannot please God! Well said
Siricius of Rome of such men--"Can the Holy Spirit of God dwell in other
than holy bodies?" No wonder that such a one as Synesius grovels at the
feet of Orestes' mistress!'

'Then she is profligate?' asked Philammon.

'She must be. Has a heathen faith and grace? And without faith and
grace, are not all our righteousnesses as filthy rags? What says St.
Paul?--That God has given them over to a reprobate mind, full of all
injustice, uncleanness, covetousness, maliciousness, you know the
catalogue--why do you ask me?'